"Most people think of Swan Lake and girls running around in tutus -- we don't have any tutus around here," said Sarah Ellis, a first-year graduate assistant in dance who has spent the past five months choreographing a piece for this year's Young Choreographers' Showcase.

The showcase opens tonight in the Donald W. Reynolds Performing Arts Center and will run Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Although Ellis has performed in the showcase as a dancer, this year is her first as a director, of sorts. Ellis is one of nine student choreographers who, between keeping their full-time student status and rehearsing for other productions, have managed to choreograph their own dance-infused conceptions, setting movement to music and using bodies to shape their creations.

"The initial process is, generally with me, a lot of experimentation, of looking at my dancers and looking at how they move regularly and what looks good on them," she said. "I had two very tall, long-legged dancers, and they looked beautiful making very long lines for their bodies and very large shapes, so I started with that. Then I had a few smaller dancers who have really beautiful quick feet, so I wanted to incorporate that as well."

While that idea of composition, design and arrangement may sound foreign to anyone outside the dance realm, Ellis said that for her YCS piece, titled "Melodic Reflection," she began by drawing inspiration from both her music and her dancers.

"I actually did most of my creation in the studio with my dancers," she said. "A lot of choreographers plan out absolutely everything they're going to do for that day and have it set and ready to go, but I just try to listen to the music, get a feel for what I want to do."

Nicole Padilla, a University College freshman who performs in Ellis' piece, said that before getting involved in YCS, she had always strictly thought of herself as a ballerina. After working with choreographers like Ellis, Padilla, one of the youngest dancers in the showcase, said she now sees herself choreographing for a piece of music someday, perhaps during her time at OU.

"It's been fun to see how it's possible to choreograph something while you're in school," she said. "I personally would have never thought of getting up and choreographing anything until you see something like this, and you're like, 'Wait, it's possible for me to do.' Now, when you listen to a piece of music that really inspires you, you think, 'There's a possibility I can put this on the stage.'"

Padilla said she took the opportunity to get involved with YCS because it was something that would allow her to grow as a dancer and work with student choreographers.

"I strictly danced ballet, but for something like this, you have to be open, so I did the modern audition," she said. "I've never danced modern until I came here."

Steve Brule, a faculty coordinator for YCS and assistant professor in the School of Dance, said few understand the preparation and planning that students do for a production like YCS.

"The collaboration between the choreographers and the scenic designer, the set designer, the costume designer and the lighting designer is an incredible experience," Brule said. "It's a good reality check for these kids to work with the teams of lighting and sets and costume and know what that's like. They have to actually budget how much the costumes are going to cost. It comes down to everything. They have to know everything."

Ellis even took her production one step further by choosing to construct her own costumes.

"After choreographing, rehearsing and coaching, I would come home and adjust the straps on the costumes and say, 'I really wish I had someone else to do that for me,' but it makes it more of your own," she said.

After the curtain closes on the opening performance, Ellis said she hopes that people leave with a sense of happiness, joy and beauty.

"I want them to say, 'Wow, that was really beautiful,'" she said. "Everyone reacts to a piece of art or a piece of beauty in a different way, but I want them to feel better for seeing it.

"This is a great way to bring people in to what dance can be in a very wide aspect of it. We've got belly dancing, modern, pointe work and a great deal of acting and recreation, so there's a lot to be seen in one small performance."
hello there & you too